Tolkien in General

Happy Birthday, Professor Tolkien!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/03/made-up-languages-from-fiction_n_1181179.html

Interesting article Chris. Not just for the Tolkien bit either.

The 'Tolkien Professor'. "How to Read Tolkien and Why" Having a listen now- so far so good.

http://www.tolkienprofessor.com/lectures/intro.html

This from the BBC- elitist nobel gits!

"JRR Tolkien was passed over for the 1961 Nobel literature prize after the storytelling in his Lord of the Rings trilogy was described as second rate.
Newly-released documents - declassified after 50 years - show that he was nominated by fellow author CS Lewis.
The Nobel prize jury said "the result has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality".

And I thought they made a mistake with Obama...

Ringdrotten wrote:And I thought they made a mistake with Obama...

Oh if we only could blame that one on Sweeden as well. Sadly though only the peace prize is awarded by the Norwegians and the other Nobel prized by various Swedish committees or what ever. Just as well, probably.

Hm, didn't know that! Thanks for the info

Norc wrote:happy birthday Tolkien!
Anyone else than me who thinks it's immensely cool that Tolkien have lived through the first AND second world war?

Not me, I feel dreadful he had to endure all that.

Norc wrote:happy birthday Tolkien!
Anyone else than me who thinks it's immensely cool that Tolkien have lived through the first AND second world war?

My Grandma too lived through both World Wars, lost a brother or two and raised her family. Not really sure if cool is the word I would use, but I do believe a "Wow!" passed through my head the first time I truly realized that. So I do see what you mean.

Now I feel it is more food for thought and humbling to think about. RIP Grandma, you have earned your rest, thank you for your endless care and hard work.

I'm sorry if it came out wrong. I didn't mean it was cool that he lived through it and watched his friends die. What I meant was the time perspective of it. To me the 2. world war seems a long time ago, but the first is like .. a very long time ago. it is like to periods in time which I've always have thought of being .. oh, it is hard to describe in english, bit the was the time perspective I meant was cool, not to have lived thorugh two wars. the 21century kids, we have no real time perspective of history and so on.

Given my job in care I often hear peoples lives stories from those time periods (few now from WW1 though) and I am never short of gobsmacked at the extrodinary things these people had to do and will dismiss to you as 'you just did what you could'. My oldest resident is 106- so she was born in 1906- almost no cars, its was mainly still horses. Sherlock Holmes was a modern novel. Jack the Ripper was only 18 years earlier, cinema had yet to take off, electricty was uncommon, the Boar Wars in Africa had just ended two years before, the first world war was yet to start. America was still the 'Wild West' and the Wall Street Crash and Great Depression were still twenty years away, it would be another twenty-two years until women got the vote in the UK (she was in the first generation of women to do so) and the British Empire still spanned the globe. When I think of everything she has lived through, from wars to the emergence of technology to space flight it just seems remarkable.

This is something that has always filled me with awe too. When I think of people who basically lived through the entire 20th century I am simply at a loss for words.

It was something like that I meant I mean to have lived to see the world change so much, remember electrisity was just a baby and so on. It seems a thousand years ago, but really it is just a couple of generations!

I don't think there has been another comparable time in history when there was so much change on a global scale within a single century and when humans lived long enough that a person could live through the whole lot of it.

Art of The Hobbit

http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/194350/art-creating-different-fictional-worlds

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Given my job in care I often hear peoples lives stories from those time periods (few now from WW1 though) and I am never short of gobsmacked at the extrodinary things these people had to do and will dismiss to you as 'you just did what you could'. My oldest resident is 106- so she was born in 1906- almost no cars, its was mainly still horses. Sherlock Holmes was a modern novel. Jack the Ripper was only 18 years earlier, cinema had yet to take off, electricty was uncommon, the Boar Wars in Africa had just ended two years before, the first world war was yet to start. America was still the 'Wild West' and the Wall Street Crash and Great Depression were still twenty years away, it would be another twenty-two years until women got the vote in the UK (she was in the first generation of women to do so) and the British Empire still spanned the globe. When I think of everything she has lived through, from wars to the emergence of technology to space flight it just seems remarkable.

Petty,. you might laugh hysterically at what I am bout to say, with or without buckie, but I feel strongly one of the reasons you are working where you are is to tell their stories, either straight up or modified, a melding of people, but tell their stories. You have a compelling way of writing and these are magnificent stories, well worth immortalizing these humble people with. Think of the Titanic, didn't like the show much but the elderly lady telling her story, just one of thousands was compelling, and so many more. Do consider it , please do. I wrote a column once for a couple of years, | had no choice, the editor got it into his head and I had to do it. I had to just like that go to elder care facilities and ask for volunteers to tell me their history and then if it warranted to write the story up in the best way possible. Some of those people in those facilities were absolute heroes in a thousand different ways. One had been a correspondent during the war for the NewYorkTimes and oh the things he told and pictures he lent me. And couples with barely clothes on their backs and ten children making their way across this nation one mile at a time and building up small empires in the place they came to , poor and with little to recommend them. Well soon these people were buying a hundred copies to send to family members worldwide and more were being printed. It rather blew me away and kept the owner of the paper very happy. But you , you have something special in the way you write, a deep insight, compassion. Go for it, oh please do.

Thank you leelee, I shall do my best, my main drive in my writting of Home (and its still ongoing- I just took a seasonal break!) is to try to remember people and their lives who otherwise would be forgotten and lost to time.

"Home", hey? Alright, after you finish a certain Project, you MUST get more of it done. Then you can start your remake of LotR. (Do I have to plan out your whole life, Petty? )

My Luthien

http://lotrlore.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/my-luthien-and-the-greatest-story-tolkien-wrote/

Agreed! The story can only ever be sold to a Director who is a Tolkien-like master of cinema. Haven't seen this particular Director yet.

I think Peter Jackson would do a decent job.

Me thinks her Maj could do a good job one day